Category: Diet

Apparently kids love snacks, now more than ever. According to a large study that looked at snack habits over three decades, children are now eating almost three snacks per day as compared with 30 years ago, when they ate an average of about one a day. And unfortunately, the snacks aren’t broccoli and apples.

The study found that snacks made up over a quarter of children’s daily calories — over 27%. The largest increases came from salty snacks and candy. Desserts and sweetened beverages were the major sources of calories from snacks.

The study was published in the March issue of Health Affairs; you can read the abstract here. Study researchers looked at national surveys of food intake in about 31,000 U.S. children, from 1977 to 2006.

One of the big findings came from preschoolers, who showed the largest increase in snacking. Children aged 2 to 6 consumed an extra 181 calories per day during snack time compared to two decades earlier.

Given the increase in US obesity rates and the health hazards excess weight brings — including increasing the risk of cancer — this study suggests unhealthy snacks may be one culprit in weight gain.

Whole grains contain the healthy bran and germ of the grain, which are removed when processed into refined grain products like white bread.

Oatmeal helps to lower harmful blood cholesterol and protect your heart, and may help protect against colon cancer by keeping your digestive system healthy. And oatmeal can be substituted for some of the flour in recipes for pancakes, cookies and muffins and other baked goods. All plant-based foods contain dietary fiber, while animal proteins contain none.

It bears repeating: Our message at AICR is evidence-based, not agenda-driven.

One of our 10 Recommendations for Cancer Prevention is to limit meat consumption. Our Expert Panel judged that the evidence linking diets high in red meat and processed meat to colorectal cancer is convincing. So they said:

Even so, our recommendation on meat isn’t popular with special interests. Vegetarian groups don’t like it because it leaves room on the plate for moderate amounts of meat.

And the meat industry? They see our recommendation as an attack on their bottom line, and do everything they can to attack the recommendation, and the exhaustive report it came from.

Case in point: The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has just released their own “technical summary” of the science on the meat-cancer link. Three guesses what it concludes.

Now that they’ve published it themselves, the rest of the scientific community can finally get a look at this document members of the meat lobby have been talking about — but not showing to anyone — for two years.